Biografie

Chronologie

Served in U.S. Army Air Corps.; medical discharge, 1943; attended Julliard School of Music, New York, USA

1945 - 1948

Commenced painting in Maine; moved to Manhattan; studied painting at Abstract Expressionist, Hans Hofmann’s, school in New York and Provincetown, 1947-1948; studied with Abstract Expressionist William Baziotes at New York University (B.A., 1951); met Willem de Kooning

1949

First solo exhibition at Jane Street Gallery, New York, USA

1950

Lived in Paris, France for eight months; returned to New York to paint full-time

Designed set for poet and Museum of Modern Art curator, Frank O’Hara’s, play; moved to Southampton, USA

1954 - 1956

One-man sculpture show at Stable Gallery, New York; Gloria Vanderbilt Foundation and Museum of Modern Art purchased Rivers, first in a museum collection; group exhibition at Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.; participated in Sao Paulo Bienal, Brazil

1957 - 1960

Worked with O’Hara on lithograph series and poet, Kenneth Koch, on painting-poems; started welded metal sculpting; traveled to Paris

New England Merchants National Bank of Boston and Smithhaven Mall, New York, commissioned murals; designed set for Igor Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex; collaborated with French filmmaker, Pierre Gaisseau; traveled in Europe and North Africa; group exhibition at Museum of Modern Art; started using spray cans

1970

De Menil Foundation, Houston, commissioned a Rivers, highest price for a commissioned work to date; solo exhibition at Art Institute of Chicago; first of many one-man shows at Marlborough Gallery, New York, then exhibited at gallery until 1999; began experimenting with airbrush, acrylic paint, and videotape

1971 - 1975

Traveled to West Coast and taught at University of California, Santa Barbara; collaborated with Kenneth Koch on video segments that are shown at Whitney Museum, New York; traveled to Africa and collaborated on film with photographer Peter Beard

1976 - 1978

Hirshhorn Museum bought a Rivers; Union of Soviet Artists invited to Russia to give lecture series; solo exhibitions at Gimpel Fils, London, ACA Galleries, New York, and Robert Miller Gallery, New York; started using color carbon

1980 - 1982

Retrospective at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Caracas, Venezuela; traveling European retrospective organized by Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hannover, Germany; moved in with Russian painter Daria Deshuk